Hope in Suffering
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Comfort as we head into the new year …
One of our elders (as always!) reminded us anew of the glorious gospel as he opened our church’s service this morning. He called out to all of us who have sinned in the past year and still cringe when we remember what we have thought, said, and done. He called out to all of us who are embarrassed by something we did; ashamed by the depth of our depravity. And he read from the prophet Isaiah: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned.” Isaiah 40:1-2a Oh, the gospel. The glorious gospel. We,…
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Cynicism and Defeated Weariness When People Love Us Imperfectly
A few years ago*, one of our church’s women’s studies read Paul Miller’s book, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World. This is one of those rare books in my life that I re-read on multiple occasions. Chapter 9 of A Praying Life is amazingly profitable for revealing my heart and helping me to understand some of my recurring temptations in life. (Don’t you just love it when an author, preacher, or teacher–or friend–does that? Shine that flashlight onto my SOUL! Give me terminology to help me to see things more clearly. I can’t repent of something I can’t name. I don’t know how to get help if I can’t even define my problem.)…
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When we are cruelly attacked by someone who SHOULD be protecting us …
I just found out that a dear friend of mine was recently verbally hurt by her dad. (Strange, because I had a stressful dream about my own dad last night and then I woke up at 6:30AM–on the EAST COAST!! so, like, 4:30 for my Montana bod–and found her email in my Inbox.) I immediately prayed for her (of course) and tried to encourage her in an email response. (Since I didn’t think I should be calling anyone on the west coast at that hour.) I’ve changed the name and details … but I thought that you might be helped by what I wrote too, so here it is. Blessed…
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God’s Provision re: My Fear of Inadvertent Heresy – Prof. Dennis Johnson
Nancy Guthrie and Prof. Dennis Johnson have a wonderful episode of “How to Teach the Bible” that I encourage you to listen to: Teaching Jesus as Prophet, Priest, and King What wonderful reminders of specific ways that Jesus truly does answer our biggest questions and our greatest fears. If you are not familiar with Nancy Guthrie, I encourage you to visit her website and learn more about her extensive teaching materials and her ministry of Respite Retreats for those grieving the loss of children, too: Nancy Guthrie And if you aren’t already benefiting from the rich, biblical teaching of Prof. Dennis Johnson, I urge you to read and study his materials, too:…
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Ajith Fernando on Responding to Personal Attacks
A THREE-PRONGED RESPONSE TO ATTACKS by Ajith Fernando How should Christians who are a minority in their land respond when fellow Christians and churches are attacked? I have thought about it a lot because churches are often attacked in Sri Lanka too. One thing is certain—never should our motivation be one of tit-for-tat or revenge. I want to suggest a three-pronged response. LOVING OUR ENEMIES We live in a region where the understanding of the concept of honour requires that if someone hits us we must ht back. In some countries the so called ‘honour killings’ are even sometimes ignored by the authorities. This is totally different to the…
- Hope in Suffering, How to Love a Mentally Ill Addict, Redeeming Church Conflicts, Redemptive Relationships, Relationships & Peacemaking, Surviving a Childhood of Neglect and Abuse
Sticking with People is Frustrating … You Will Suffer Pain if You are Committed to People
What a contrast in articles! The first is what I would charitably characterize as a, well, not very gracious, thoughtful, or helpful article on why every woman should “ditch the guilt” dropping her little baby off with the “professionals” because staying home with young children can “drive you bonkers,” “give you a back problem and a brain ache,” and women “just need more.” (If you’re really interested, you can read it here, but I think there are far better articles “out there” that graciously and intelligently address this important wisdom issue. And I do think it is a wisdom issue—so discernment, humility, and love are required when we talk about…
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Don’t Kid Yourself — Parents Die
(A repost from 2013.) Thanks to my astoundingly generous sister, I have had an iPhone for one year now. She bought it for me mostly because it was the same cost as renting a GPS for me for one of my events that required me to drive—and she knows that I am the MOST spatially-confused human on the planet. I get lost in my own neighborhood, more or less navigating in a new, large city. Sixteen lanes of 75 mph traffic doesn’t bother me—I am a confident and competent driver—but trying to be “in my map” and figure out whether I’m supposed to turn left or right? Well. It’s…
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The Most Scared I Have Ever Been in my Entire Life
On the drive home from church today, my ten year-old daughter asked me when I was the most scared in my entire life. I thought for a moment and then I replied that the saddest I had ever been was when our second child died on that fateful Easter afternoon in 2007 and then when my best friend, my mother, passed away in 2012. But the most scared? Hmmmm. For that I had to dig back to two childhood memories. The first was when the MCHS (Morris Community High School) principal sent a runner to pull me out of my junior-level physics class because my sister was calling from the University of Chicago, frantic, because…
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The Post-It Notes I Scribbled the Day Before My Mother Died
[From the archives. A few weeks after my mother died in December of 2012.] I finally dragged myself out of bed yesterday to tackle some of the dust bunnies (really Golden Retriever bunnies) that have accumulated in our bedroom and when I was swiffering out under our bed, the following note scritched its way off of our hardwood floor: “More out of it. Wheezing. Declined a LOT today. On morphine and ativan for comfort. Flailing arms–a sign of breathing problems. Death is imminent. Deep, deep decline. Inserted a foley catheter because she can’t get out of bed any more. Can you come right away?” Yes. It was the scrap of…
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Vandalizing Shalom
From one of my favorite books … C. Plantinga’s, Not The Way It’s Supposed to Be–A Breviary of Sin: “None of our lives is an accident. We have been called into existence, expected, awaited, equipped, and assigned. We have been called to undertake the stewardship of a good creation, to create sturdy and buoyant families that pulse with the glad give-and-take of the generations. By the sins of attack, we vandalize shalom. By the sins of flight we abandon it. We ‘hate the light and do not come to the light’ (John 3:20). [BUT!] Don’t forget the resolve of God. God wants shalom and will pay any price to get it…